Two more:
Plus one from Chuck Berry:
- Too Much Monkey Business (which “Subterranean Homesick Blues” owes a lot to).
Seven Drunken Nights (also known as You Old Fool) features the narrator coming home every night and finding a different suspicious item in his house, and his wife making an excuse for why it’s there.
Which, for the record, is a cover of a Hank Snow song. I do agree that the Johnny Cash version is better.
Bob Dylan - “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”
Stevie Wonder - “Black Man”
and
For there’s Basie, Miller, Satchmo
And the king of all, Sir Duke
And with a voice like Ella’s ringing out
There’s no way the band can lose
They Might Be Giants list Alice Cooper songs in Why Must I Be Sad?
Gilbert and Sullivan’s “I’ve Got a Little List” from the Mikado has been mentioned, but Gilbert wrote several other lyrics that are also lists:
“A More Humane Mikado,” also from Mikado, covers much of the same ground as “I’ve Got a Little List,” though generally without encompassing anyone’s death (more about letting “the punishment fit the crime”).
“I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” from Pirates of Penzance – the first two verses list the many unmilitary things the M-G can do and the last lists (basic) military things he’d like to do.
“Were I Thy Bride,” in Yeomen of the Guard, has the character Phoebe listing what she’d do if she were married to the jailer Wilfred.
“Rising Early in the Morning,” from The Gondoliers, lists the activities the joint kings of Barataria engage in during the course of a particular day.
“If You Want a Receipt” from Patience is sort of the ultimate in list songs–it’s a long enumeration of how you create a “heavy dragoon” in the English military by combining traits of “all of the popular figures in history”: “the keen penetration of Paddington Pollaky,” “the pluck of Lord Nelson on board of the Victory…”
Mr. Gilbert did like his lists.
Loudon Wainwright III’s Glad To See You’ve Got Religion
I’m glad to see you’ve got religion
I’m glad to see you’ve gone to god
I’m glad to see you’ve straightened all your lines
And you’ve evened out your odds
ETA:
The first verse and refrain were written as the show’s theme song. When it became so popular (TV Guide’s reviewer Matt Roush called it "the best TV show theme song ever) BNL expanded it into a full length song.
Sung by Linda Ronstadt, written by Lowell George
Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now
Let’s tell the future
Let’s see how it’s been done.
By numbers. By mirrors. By water.
By dots made at random on paper.
By salt. By dice.
By meal. By mice.
By dough of cakes.
By sacrificial fire.
By fountains. By fishes.
Writing in ashes.
Birds. Herbs.
Smoke from the altar.
Suzanne Vega, Predictions
The Beatles All Together Now lists numbers, letters and colors
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 I love you.
Monday, at sister Suzy’s ball
Tuesday, at the old dance hall
Wednesday, at the road house inn
Thursday, at the lion’s den
Friday, at the chatter box
Saturday and Sunday, everybody rocks
Seven Nights To Rock – Nick Lowe
Ball of Confusion - The Temptations (bad things happening at the end of the 60s)
At the Zoo - Simon & Garfunkel (the animals’ personalities)
Feeling Good - Nina Simone (things that know how the singer feels)
The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All - Terry Pratchett et al. (things that can be buggered)
I think it’s called 88 lines about 44 women and, you’re right, it’s terrible. I think it’s by The Nails?
There’s a song called Punk Rock Heaven by Mary Prankster that lists punk-rocky type things.
There’s also the cover of Ball of Confusion by Love & Rockets with a slightly updated list!
Can’t believe I’m gonna be the first to mention the song that’s a reference to, “Ten Crack Commandments” by Biggie Smalls.
Sixteen Reasons Why I Love You - Connie Stecens
The Animaniacs created a song listing the countries of the world.
Being that it came out in early 90s, it is slightly out of date. And I just came across this list of mistakes and omissionsin it. Regardless, it’s still pretty darn. great.
Nitpick: Written and first recorded by folk singer Pete Seeger, who was about as New York as a person can get.
I love the second verse of Albert Hammond’s It Never Rains In Southern California:
I’m out of work, I’m out of my head
Out of self respect, I’m out of bread
I’m underloved, I’m underfed, I want to go home
Navajo, by Black Lips
could be Cherokee, Inuit, Adai, Navajo, Sioux, Creek, Apache, Seminole, Hano, tomahawk, arrow, anywaythewindblow its just fine with me
The title track from Kate Bush’s album 50 Words For Snow.